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Encyclopedia of Language and Education pp 107–120Cite as

Human Rights and Language Policy in Education

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Introduction

The United Nation's 2004 Human Development Report ( http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/) links cultural liberty to language rights and human development and argues that there is

… no more powerful means of ‘encouraging’ individuals to assimilate to a dominant culture than having the economic, social and political returns stacked against their mother tongue. Such assimilation is not freely chosen if the choice is between one's mother tongue and one's future. (p. 33)

The press release about the UN report (see web address provided earlier) exemplifies the role of language as an exclusionary tool:

Limitations on people's ability to use their native language—and limited facility in speaking the dominant or official national language—can exclude people from education, political life and access to justice. Sub‐Saharan Africa has more than 2,500 languages, but the ability of many people to use their language in education and in dealing with the state is particularly limited....

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Language and Culture, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Tove Skutnabb‐Kangas

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  1. Tove Skutnabb‐Kangas
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 19104-6216, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Nancy H. Hornberger

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Skutnabb‐Kangas, T. (2008). Human Rights and Language Policy in Education. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-32875-1

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